Saturday, November 28, 2009

Will work for Optimism.

Summary:Comms planning genius required to create the best work of their life.

Background:Wieden + Kennedy London is a creative communications agency.

In fact, our ambition is to be the most admired creative business in the world. This goes way beyond just advertising. Sure, we make ads for our clients (which include Nike, Honda, Nokia, Lurpak and The COI, amongst others), but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. We’re constantly thinking about, talking about, and making stuff for both ourselves and for our clients (both in the real and digital spaces) that challenges convention and gets people thinking, or behaving, differently.

The Planning Department (or, possibly more appropriately, the Planning Collective) at W+K London plays a central role in this. Made up of a motley bunch of people that, in a former life, have variously been digital planners, content planners, partnership experts, media planners, clients and even good old account planners, we’re all bound by a few things that, regardless of background, remain sacred: strategic nous, curiosity and passion. On top of that, as the source of inspiration for the agency, it’s vital that we’re both interesting and have a point of view.

The Role:Communications Planning at W+K London is quite different to Communications Planning in, say, a big Media Agency. For a start, there are none of those big process flow diagrams that you traditionally see wheeled out at pitches. The ‘process’ here is far more iterative – you’ll work hand-in-hand with account teams, creatives, producers and other planners to make world-class work happen, whatever it takes. You’ll be involved from idea inception, right through to final implementation - and beyond.

Specifically, this role is to support the Planning and Creative Departments (and the Agency at large) in understanding how we take what we make and connect it with people; whether it be housewives buying butter, teenagers drinking too much alcohol, or football communities hungry for Nike’s point-of-view on Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick at the weekend.

You’ll need to be able to bring comms planning alive for the agency, and show us how media can be used creatively to give ideas an extra dimension. You’ll need to challenge and inspire the creative teams day in, day out, and encourage them to think differently about how channels can work to enhance what they’re producing.

This is a horizontal role. By that, we mean that rather than running one or two accounts, you’ll work project by project across all pieces of business in the agency, as well as the odd pitch. Part strategy, part creative, and part media, this is a high profile and vital role which sits at the very heart of what we’re striving to achieve as a company.

The Person:Ultimately, we need someone that gets how communications planning and media works. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have worked in a media / comms agency, but for obvious reasons, that might help.

We need somebody that’s digitally fluent but not myopic. The right person will get how digital media fits into a broader communications framework and will be equally comfortable talking about ‘old’ media, too.

At the risk of this sounding too much like a formal job description, the person we hire will have to be a ‘self starter’. This isn’t because you’ll be left to sink or swim (you won’t, we promise) but there will be many occasions when you just need to get on with stuff. We work in structured chaos, and that needs to be something that you’re happy and comfortable with.

You’ll need to leave your ego at the door. We have an aphorism at W+K that gets used a lot: “The work comes first”. This comes straight from the top – it’s a founding principle of the agency and it applies across the board, from the grad Account Exec right up to Dan Wieden himself. It basically means that we need people that are willing to put our creative output above their own ego. And as such, we don’t tend to hire many ‘glory hunters’.

Similarly, and this probably goes without saying, we tend to go for people that have something a little different about them, whether it’s an interest, a skill or whatever. It doesn’t mean we’re a bunch of nutters, but it does mean that we’re constantly learning from each other and being stimulated by the people we sit next to. Which we think is a great thing.

And being funny, alongside an appreciation of Nathan Barley, will probably help too. (Although that’s not a pre-requisite).

Details:We expect the right person to have around 4-6 years’ professional experience. But that’s not fixed – if you’re up to it, feel free to prove us wrong.

We also recognise that people don’t work for free. So if we like each other, we can chat about money and benefits later on.

Sound interesting? Drop us a note (geniusplannerhunt@wk.com) and we’ll have a chat.

***end of JD***

You think I stand a chance? I will work for optimism and I'm sure I will make a good addition to their collection of international peoples from all over the world ;) I bet they don't have a Malaysian (yet).